I'm not saying that athiests or agnostics can't do good things. Their motivation just might be slightly different than a person with who is a theists. Living without a higher being, we are free to persue whatever we desire, as long as we don't get caught. That doesn't mean that we will carry out these desires within us, but it does mean that we are free to do so without eternal consequences.
And how would you explain the "devout" religionists who see nothing wrong with screwing the other guy over so they can have their cake and eat it too?
I would question his "devoutness". According to most religions, common man is bound to make mistakes, no matter how devout he is. But when he consistantly and willfully commits actions which are in direct violation of his stated moral law, he needs to rexamine whether he really accepts that religion.
But I say to you the opposite. creationism remains vital even among some intelligent religious people because the very idea of evolution threatens what they hold as most fundemantal.
For some people, yes I would agree with this. Most people do not readily set aside their views on origin when it affects their moral views to the very core.
But tell me this, if in the end, we are nothing but time + matter + chance and all those religions out there are wrong, what does agnostic or the athiest gain? He can never know if his viewpoint is truly correct until he is dead. In his grave, can he scoff at the living and dead because of their ignorance? Can he gload in the fact that he was right and so many other people were wrong? What about the theists? What does he lose if he is wrong? Can he feel defeat now that he is gone? If his religious views give him meaning in his life unitl he dies, will any of that meaning be lost when he is in the grave?
On the other hand, if a theists is correct, and there IS life after death, than what does the agnostic/ atheists lose? Depending on which religion you look at, a lot. And what does the theist have to gain? Everything.
When an agnostic/atheists dies, he has everything to lose and nothing to gain; when a theists dies, he has nothing to lose and everything to gain. How then does one argue against religion from a philisophical standpoint? Since a non-theists has nothing to gain after death, the benefits from being a non-theists must come in the current life. And what benefits are there... to be free to persue the desires of his heart that are in conflict with theistic morals.
). You can deny it if it makes you happy, but that does not alter the facts. As I say, among the vast majority of scientists, evolution is a fact, the theory they refer to involves how evolution occurs.
